Modern process control systems, such as data acquisition systems for tracking, tracing and controlling various processes in industries as varied as manufacturing, retailing and shipping, employ devices with embedded servers. The devices typically include 1D or 2D bar-code readers (imagers), bar-code verification and inspection systems, image acquisition devices for machine vision systems, laser scanners, RFID readers and the like.
Improvements in data connectivity allow access to web services provided by the embedded servers from web-enabled devices, such as personal computers (PCs), tablets, smart phones and other human machine interfaces (HMIs) typically used in industrial control automation.
Advances in standardization of web technologies as well as cloud computing technologies provides opportunities to simplify access to web services provided by the embedded servers and increase cross-platform flexibility.
There are, however, certain constraints on devices employing embedded servers as opposed to a dedicated server device, including constraints on memory, storage, bandwidth and CPU cycles. In addition, due to the availability of web access, the demands on the web services provided by the embedded servers is increasing.
Such constraints and increased demand must be taken into account in the design of embedded web servers and web applications for processing the types of complex data typically generated by process control systems employing embedded web servers.